The ground-effect era brought the phenomenon of porpoising which many teams have failed to tackle even after two seasons. The constant bouncing off the surface of the track has left many drivers debilitated with back issues. McLaren’s Lando Norris is one of those. The 24-year-old has now urged the FIA to take special note of this issue.
The next era of regulations will start from the 2026 onwards. While it majorly concerns changes to the composition of the engines, Norris has asked the ruling body to ensure the end of porpoising.
“There’s certain times when it starts to have a toll. It’s definitely not as bad as what it was two years ago. Things have improved since then, with porpoising and all of this. But you still have to run the cars extremely low and stiff, and all of these things,” Norris told Motorsport.com.
He then added, “I struggle a lot with my body and back and all of these things. And I have to do a lot now, which I didn’t have to do a few years ago.” The problem presented itself in the first year of regulations (2022).
As more and more drivers expressed the extent of their discomfort, the FIA took notice. The governing body raised the ride height for the 2023 season and the issue began to faze out by the time the racing calendar reached mid-season.
However, the first two races of the 2024 season have seen porpoising return for many teams. McLaren and Mercedes are among those teams. Ferrari visibly has such violent bouncing that one can see the driver’s head bobbing up and down through the onboard footage.
Lando Norris does not trust teams to tackle porpoising
Most F1 teams, barring Red Bull, actively raised the issue of porpoising in different meetings involving FIA officials. Despite it leading to the governing body raising the ride height, Lando Norris is not sure if the teams will strongly speak against it. That, he believes is because the teams focus on just making the cars quicker and not more comfortable.
He continued, “I think it does need to be improved a little bit – because the teams just make the quickest cars, and then we drive them.” His teammate, Oscar Piastri, agrees as well.
The Australian driver said, “We’re going to drive the car how it is quickest and you’re never going to give up lap time for not having an achy body after the race. So you kind of need rules to stop that from us, because we’re so competitive that we’re just going to get the ultimate lap time out no matter what it takes.”
Lewis Hamilton was one of the drivers who spoke strongly about the need to tackle porpoising in 2022. The 39-year-old Briton made headlines after the conclusion of the Azerbaijan GP. After struggling to get out of his car, the seven-time champion famously held his back in agony and was helped out by the Mercedes crew.
The intense pain cast doubts over his participation in the next race in Canada. Hamilton, however, soldiered through the struggle and bagged a podium at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
